“Glossed from head to toe in leather, a battleship-sized Harley-Davidson between his thighs (and with a real Soviet-era battleship as his backdrop), Vladimir Putin rides into a bikers’ festival at the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk to kick-start his United Russia Party’s campaign for December’s elections to the Duma. Say what you like about Putin, it beats Ed Miliband puzzling his way through “The Red Flag” or David Cameron annoying a waitress in Tuscany.”